Iphigenia in Aulis (Plays for Performance Series) [Paperback]

Euripides (Author)

Book Description

Series: Plays for Performance Series | Publication Date: September 1, 1997

Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter in order to ensure the good fortune of his forces in the Trojan War is, despite its heroic background, in many respects a domestic tragedy. Mr. Rudall's new translation retains Euripides' poetic beauty while fashioning a playable dialogue.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

The Plays for Performance series is edited by Nicholas Rudall, former artistic director of the Court Theatre at the University of Chicago where he is professor of classics, and Bernard Sahlins, founder and director of the Second City. They both live in Chicago, Illinois.

Product Details

• Paperback: 69 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566631114
• ISBN-13: 978-1566631112
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #650,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An accurate and wonderfully performable translation!, September 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Iphigenia in Aulis (Plays for Performance Series) (Paperback)

When you think of Greek tragedy and Euripides what immediately springs to mind? A desperately dry philosophical volume? Believe me, that is not the case with Ipheginia at Aulis. This beautifully crafted volume tells of the conflict between political and familial responsibility with a smattering of divine intervention. The beautiful Helen has be kidnapped by Paris and taken back to Troy. Helen's husband, Menalaus,brother to King Agamemnon of Mycenae persuades his brother to send the largest ever Greek fleet to take the land of Troy and retieve Helen. As the fleet is ready to sail from Aulis, the winds die and they are stranded. Unless, as the evil and manipulative prophet Calchas says, a sacrafice of a certain sixteen year old virgin princess is made then they will be permenantly beached. Here follow many twists and turns and a ride through the Ancient Greek mythical world with the fate of a whole nation at stake. How will Agamemnon fight his conscience and persuade his wife Clytemnestra to bring his beloved daughter to meet her death? To what depths will he stoop to to follow the quest for glory? Whatever the outcome, this is a beautiful play which lends itself to performance at any level- sure to bring any audience to their feet!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Euripides has Agamemnon and Achille fighting pre-Iliad, October 1, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Iphigenia in Aulis (Plays for Performance Series) (Paperback)

"Iphigenia in Aulis" was the last play written by Euripides and represents his most cynical depiction of the great heroes of Greek mythology. The subject of the play is the sacrifice of Iphigenia, ordered by her father King Agamemnon, to appease the goddess Artemis, so that the Achaen fleet can have fair winds to sail to Troy and bring back Helen. Of course is will be ten long years before Agamemnon returns, to be murdered in his royal home by his wife Clytemnestra, who spent those long years of separation waiting for the day she could avenge her daughter's death.

I have used "Iphigenia in Aulis" as part of large unit on the Trojan War right before proceeding on to Homer's epic poem the "Iliad." Not only does the play come at that point in terms of the chronology of the war, but it clearly foreshadows the initial confrontation in the "Iliad" between Agamemnon and Achilles over Briseis of the lovely arms. To get his daughter to come to Aulis and be executed, Agamemnon says she is to marry Achilles. This lie not only makes Achilles angry when he learns about it, but the prospect of her daughter's marriage brings Clytemnestra to Aulis as well and foreshadows the tragedy "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus, the first part of the famed Orestia, as well.

But it is the contrast with Homer's epic that is most manifest here. Euripides invests the beginning of Homer's saga with painful irony as Agamemnon rejects the pleas of Briseis's father; after all, has the Achean leader really forgotten the pain of sacrificing his daughter ten years earlier? In Euripides's play it becomes clear that Agamemnon does not care for his daughter; she is but a bargaining chip in his ploy for power. As her father and ruler Agamemnon could simply order his daughter to come to Aulis, but instead he concocts a fake marriage to Achilles, the most eligible of the young Achean heroes. When Achilles finds out he has been a pawn in this deadly little game he is incensed and promises to safe the maiden, but in the end he turns out to be as foolish and as wicked as the rest of the characters. All of the sympathy goes towards Iphigenia, the only true hero in the drama since she alone acts selflessly. For the greater glory of the Achean host she will accept her fate and thus be fondly remembered.

Any one teaching the "Iliad" should at least provide the gist of "Iphigenia at Aulis" as background material, along with the story of the judgment of Paris. The same would apply to the study of either the entire "Orestia" or just the first play in the trilogy, "Agamemnon." As for the "true" fate of Iphigenia as realized by Euripides in "Iphigenia at Taurus," which is certainly the least tragic of his tragedies, that can be briefly mentioned as well to bring the whole grand tale to a happy ending of sorts.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great translation of a timeless classic, August 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Iphigenia in Aulis (Plays for Performance Series) (Hardcover)

A brilliant translation of one of Euripides' finest, excellently capturing the mood and spirit of the text. A prose translation, Rudall's effort has done great service to Euripides. The characterisations are good, and the language is almost always fluid and idiomatic, with only a few clumsy exceptions. Excellent!